Gas generating agents used in gas generators for air bags generally comprises fuel, an oxidizing agent, a binder, and various additives; recently, instead of gas generating agents having an azide compound that generates harmful gases as the fuel, gas generating agents having a safer non-azide compound as the fuel have come to be used.
To secure passenger safety by inflating an airbag as planned during an automobile collision, in addition to not generating harmful gases, it is desirable for a gas generating agent used in a gas generator for an air bag to satisfy, for example, the following three requirements.
(a) A low combustion temperature to suppress thermal damage to the air bag.
(b) A low amount of combustion residue to prevent the air bag from being damaged due to combustion residue getting into the air bag.
(c) A high burning rate of the gas generating agent to inflate and develop the air bag within a prescribed time (generally approximately a few tens of milliseconds).
US 2003/094225A1 discloses, as a gas generating composition generating a low amount of residue, one comprising 5-nitrouracil or the like and basic copper nitrate, and US 2003/145921A1 discloses, as a gas generating composition having a combustion temperature at 2100 K° or less, a composition comprising a binder/fuel/an oxidizing agent.